With nobody yet named as the new president of the Convention Center, one of the building's longtime former executives, Robert Williams, will step in to help manage daily operations for about six weeks. "Until we have a day-to-day replacement, Bob Williams is going to help me," the center's president, Robert Butera, said yesterday. "Everyone respects him, and he knows the business. " In January, Butera, 67, announced he would resign this year to focus on his battle with cancer.

Meek Mill, the 25-year-old North Philadelphia rapper swaggering along the cusp of fame and fortune, has been grounded for a month. No tours. No traveling. No performing, except for charity. Less than two months after the release of his first CD, Dreams and Nightmares, a scheduled trip to Africa has been cancelled, and other appearances in St. Thomas and across the United States have also been nixed. And it's all the fault of Meek's alter ego, Robert Williams, convicted in 2008 on a criminal cornucopia of charges including selling drugs to an undercover police officer, possessing illegal guns and hiding wads of tainted cash in his dresser drawers.

In a contentious hearing, a Philadelphia judge on Friday ordered up-and-coming rapper Meek Mill to attend etiquette classes and provide his probation officer with details of all travel plans. Common Pleas Court Judge Genece E. Brinkley told Meek Mill, also known as Robert Williams, he must complete the classes before Aug. 4 and notify his probation officer, Treas Underwood, any time he wants to travel outside Pennsylvania. Those orders came at a probation-violation hearing for Williams, who is on probation for a 2008 gun and drug conviction.

I USED TO not understand why anyone would go out of their way to help Meek Mill get out of prison. His music is profane. His lyrics can be crude. It's clear that he needs to respect the law, and that at 27 he still has a lot of growing up to do. But I have nothing but respect for the three men who counseled Mill during his recent jail time. Maybe Mill is on a better road now. He has had some good role models lately: the Rev. Damone B. Jones Sr., senior pastor of Bible Way Baptist Church in West Philly; Chad Dion Lassiter, president of Black Men at Penn School of Social Work Inc.; and Howard Brown, a Goldman Sachs alum who heads his own finance firm, Brown Holdings International.

His Sept. 9 album release has been canceled and his lawyer says he's losing a fortune, but the Philadelphia-born rapper Meek Mill won't be getting out of prison before mid-October, a city judge ruled Monday. After an often-acrimonious 90-minute hearing in a courtroom packed with the jailed hip-hop artist's supporters, Common Pleas Court Judge Genece E. Brinkley said she saw no signs Mill - real name Robert Williams - has changed his ways since she imprisoned him July 11. "I'm not going to do it," Brinkley told defense attorney Dennis J. Cogan after he asked for Williams' immediate release from a three- to six-month sentence for violating his probation on a 2009 drug and gun conviction.

PHILADELPHIA The local rapper known as Meek Mill repeated two words over and over Thursday after losing his civil rights lawsuit against two city police officers he accused of detaining him illegally two years ago. "I quit," Robert Williams said, bolting from the courtroom moments after a federal jury delivered its verdict. "I quit everything . . . except for music. " The 26-year-old North Philadelphia native made a hasty exit from the federal courthouse, leaving his attorneys behind.

A story about the Pennsylvania Ballet in Wednesday's Inquirer misstated the number of new works presented during Roy Kaiser's tenure as artistic director. The company added 90 new works to its repertoire, including 34 world premieres and 56 company premieres. The "Photo of the Day" in some editions Wednesday was published with the caption for a different photo. The correct caption for the photo above is: Robert Williams, known professionally as the rapper Meek Mill, arrives at the federal courthouse at Sixth and Market Streets, where his lawsuit against the City of Philadelphia over an arrest is being heard.

WITH NEARLY 3 million Twitter followers, Meek Mill has lots of fans, but one of his newest and most unlikely admirers was seated next to him in court yesterday - his etiquette instructor. The 26-year-old rapper, whose real name is Robert Williams, was ordered in May to receive etiquette training by Judge Genece Brinkley to address how he speaks in court, his behavior outside of court and his social-media postings. Gail Madison, head of the Madison School of Etiquette and Protocol in Huntingdon Valley, gave a glowing review of her one and only four-hour session with Williams, whom she said was a willing pupil.

A radio station employee who police said fatally wounded a North Philadelphia teenager after the youth repeatedly stabbed him during a robbery in Center City on Monday night remained hospitalized yesterday in guarded but stable condition. David Smith, 25, who was confronted and robbed by a group of about 10 youths on Chestnut Street near 17th Street, was in Hahnemann University Hospital with wounds of the ear, back of the head and lower back. A spokeswoman for the District Attorney's Office said no decision had been reached on whether to lodge charges against Smith, of the 4900 block of Monument Road, in the stabbing death of Robert Williams, 15, of the 1600 block of North Bouvier Street.

I USED TO not understand why anyone would go out of their way to help Meek Mill get out of prison. His music is profane. His lyrics can be crude. It's clear that he needs to respect the law, and that at 27 he still has a lot of growing up to do. But I have nothing but respect for the three men who counseled Mill during his recent jail time. Maybe Mill is on a better road now. He has had some good role models lately: the Rev. Damone B. Jones Sr., senior pastor of Bible Way Baptist Church in West Philly; Chad Dion Lassiter, president of Black Men at Penn School of Social Work Inc.; and Howard Brown, a Goldman Sachs alum who heads his own finance firm, Brown Holdings International.

When Meek Mill was last seen, on Aug. 18, the rising Philadelphia rapper was in prison clothes while his legal team tried to persuade a judge to parole him early from her three- to six-month sentence for violating probation from a 2009 gun and drug conviction. Common Pleas Court Judge Genece E. Brinkley wasn't moved then. Still isn't. On Monday, Brinkley denied a new petition for early parole filed by the rapper's new lawyer, Tariq K. El-Shabazz. The action signaled that the 27-year-old artist - whose real name is Robert Williams - will likely stay in jail at least until his minimum sentence ends Oct. 11. El-Shabazz, a veteran Philadelphia criminal lawyer, was not immediately available for comment.

Authorities have long monitored social media postings of criminals for incriminating comments and other clues. Now one criminal - or at least his lawyers - have turned the tables. Imprisoned Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill's lawyers on Friday renewed their legal campaign to get him paroled, criticizing a city prosecutor for boasting on Facebook about Mill's probation violation. On Monday, Assistant District Attorney Noel Ann DeSantis responded to Mill's first parole petition in a court filing quoting pop music legend Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror" to urge the 27-year-old Mill - whose real name is Robert Williams - to take responsibility for his conduct.

A Philadelphia prosecutor turned to no less an authority than Michael Jackson in opposing early parole for the rapper Meek Mill, saying he has yet to accept responsibility for himself and his actions. Much of Assistant District Attorney Noel Ann DeSantis' legal response - filed Friday in Common Pleas Court after the rapper's plea for release from a three- to six-month sentence for violating probation - is a 13-page recitation of his problematic years on court supervision. But DeSantis also suggested that perhaps music was the best way to convince Mill - real name Robert Williams - that he has to take a "hard-earned look at himself, his talent, and his character as a man. " DeSantis then quotes from the lyrics to Jackson's hit "Man in the Mirror," which includes the verse: "I'm starting with the man in the mirror; I'm asking him to change his ways.

Lawyers for the imprisoned Philadelphia-born rapper Meek Mill filed a motion for parole Wednesday in their continuing effort to stop the financial damage to his concert and recording career. Since he was sent to prison on July 11, Mill - real name Robert Williams - has missed at least two concert dates and his recording company has warned that his continuing imprisonment could endanger the Sept. 9 release of his next album, Dreams Worth More Than Money. The motion, filed in Common Pleas Court by attorney Dennis J. Cogan, asks for Williams' immediate release and maintains that he did not violate probation.

PHILLY-BORN rapper Meek Mill, apparently having forgotten the manners he learned in court-ordered etiquette classes last year, had his probation revoked and was sentenced to three to six months in jail followed by five years of probation. Common Pleas Judge Genece E. Brinkley yesterday found the lanky rapper in technical violation of his probation rules after a four-hour hearing, during which a laundry list of his bad behavior was aired. The rapper, whose birth name is Robert Williams, was busted for failing to get the judge's permission before booking out-of-town concerts - that included a show in Washington, D.C., scheduled for last night.

JUST a tad bothered by your article titled "Bum Rap" in regards to Rapper Meek Mill's suit being tossed out of court. The first sentence of the second paragraph reads, "The mostly white panel of four men and four women found that Officer Alvin Outlaw and then-Officer Andre Boyer did not unlawfully stop, detain and arrest Mill on the night of Oct. 31, 2012. " Why was the jurors' race brought into this saga? Why was it even mentioned? Is this what the Daily News has to do in order to sell papers?

PHILADELPHIA The local rapper known as Meek Mill repeated two words over and over Thursday after losing his civil rights lawsuit against two city police officers he accused of detaining him illegally two years ago. "I quit," Robert Williams said, bolting from the courtroom moments after a federal jury delivered its verdict. "I quit everything . . . except for music. " The 26-year-old North Philadelphia native made a hasty exit from the federal courthouse, leaving his attorneys behind.

A story about the Pennsylvania Ballet in Wednesday's Inquirer misstated the number of new works presented during Roy Kaiser's tenure as artistic director. The company added 90 new works to its repertoire, including 34 world premieres and 56 company premieres. The "Photo of the Day" in some editions Wednesday was published with the caption for a different photo. The correct caption for the photo above is: Robert Williams, known professionally as the rapper Meek Mill, arrives at the federal courthouse at Sixth and Market Streets, where his lawsuit against the City of Philadelphia over an arrest is being heard.